As you have probably read, John McCain has considerably closed the gap between women who say they will vote for him, and those who will vote for Barack Obama. This sudden closing of the gap is due in large part with his selection of Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. Now, John McCain is still considerably behind Barack Obama when it comes to the woman vote, but he is doing a little better than G.W.B. did in 2000, but worse than he did in 2004. Still, the sudden shrinking of the gap comes at a surprise to me, a man.
Most of the women that I have talked to (if you know me, then you know that means a lot of them) are highly insulted that John McCain would think that they would vote for him just because he put a woman on his ticket. Hillary voters especially seem upset and even somewhat disgusted at the notion that Sarah Palin could steal away Billary votes.
Let's get one thing straight, Sarah Palin will never amount to the type of politician or woman that Hillary Clinton is. Yes, I have said negative things about Hillary before, but I have come to realize that she cares deeply about this country, and wants nothing but the best for it. And she also raised the bar quite a bit. She changed the discussion in politics to reflect more upon women, something we have needed to do for decades upon decades.
Sarah Palin also stands in complete contrast of what Hillary Clinton stands up for on women's issues.
Second, John McCain would not support legislation that would ensure that women are paid a fair and equal wage in the workplace.
For example, The Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2007 would have changed the law so that working women all over America could sue their employers for back pay, if they found out that their male equals were receiving higher raises, better pay and better benefits. This act was in response to the Supreme Court's ruling that Lilly Ledbetter could not sue Goodyear Tires for all of the back pay she was owed due to discriminatory pay. Men that held the same position as her, preforming the same work, were making far more than Lilly was when she was an employee at Goodyear. In wasn't until years later, as she neared retirement, that someone left a report in her locker that showed what she had made over the years as compared to her male equals.
The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and Lilly Lost because the law said that she could only sue up to 180 days after each paycheck. This meant that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Lilly was owed, could not be recovered.
Justice Ginsburg said that this was one of the worst examples of discrimination in U.S. history, and that it was up to Congress to fix it.
In 2007 they aimed to do just that, Rep. George Miller of the House wrote the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2007, better known as the Fair Pay Act. This act would have amended the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 to define a violation to be held in the Act, EVERY TIME there is a pay discrimination. That would mean if a woman didn't find out until years or decades later that she was paid in a discriminatory manner, she could hold the company accountable for their wrong doing.
Long story short, the bill sailed through the house with bipartasin support, but was blocked in the Senate. Only two Senators didn't bother to show up to vote on this important act.
Senator John McCain and Senator Charles Hagel. It was latter said by a McCain aid that he would have voted against it anyway.
How can we vote in a president that doesn't support fair and equal pay in the workplace? A vote for McCain/Palin is a vote against women (and I'm not even going to touch Palin's radical stance on abortion).
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